#cult tactics

[deservedgrace]

i was thinking about the sleep deprivation thing that cults do and something i completely forgot about with regards to that conversation is that the sleep needs of children/teens are different to adults. it's a range as most things are, but when it comes to sleep you HAVE to go based off the biggest number to ensure everyone gets proper sleep because you cannot function properly without proper sleep

so, if you were a teenager who went to church camps and they allowed for less than 10 hours of sleep, or if you were a kid (6-12) and they allowed for less than 12 hours of sleep, you very well may have been sleep deprived, either intentionally or unintentionally

and as a little bonus: adults tend to respond to sleep deprivation with tiredness, but kids tend to respond with hyperactivity, and even one night of sleep deprivation can affect someone

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Question: why do people refer to Tobias in Megamorphs 4 as a "quasi-voluntary" controller? I don't have access to my copy right now but I don't recall anything that would imply he had any knowledge of what he was joining/cooperated in any way? Did I miss something?

So I call Tobias quasi-voluntary, because I think — from my read of MM4 — that Tobias is about as voluntary as any "voluntary controller" ever gets. Which is not that voluntary. Tobias goes to a Sharing meeting because Jake's there, but pretty soon he gets sucked into the cycle of love-bombing: "When you attend your second meeting of The Sharing they assign you a guide" (MM4). In Tobias's case it's a guy named Bill, a few years older, who spends every meeting praising Tobias, and talking up how the Sharing cured his depression and being a full member changed his life.

Bill waits for Tobias to say "I want to be a full member." And then he asks if Tobias is sure, and Tobias says "Yes." Bill presses all the way to "You trade a little bit of freedom for a lot of belonging" and gets Tobias to agree a third time. When the time comes for the "ceremony" (infestation), Chapman makes Tobias explain why he's joining, and Tobias does. Three more times Chapman asks, and three more times Tobias says, out loud, that he wants what's going to happen next. Chapman explains why they want Tobias's consent: "We only have problems in twenty-one percent of willing members. And there are... fewer incidents of contested control." Tobias withdraws consent when he realizes they're about to put a slug in his brain, but by then it's too late.

Later Tobias says "Most painful of all was the image of myself swallowing everything the Sharing told me. I had walked, willingly, to my own destruction. At the time I'd seen no alternatives." So is Tobias voluntary? Well, is Chapman voluntary? He agrees not to resist in exchange for Melissa not being recruited, and he keeps his end of the bargain (#2). Not only does he not fight back while there's a yeerk in his brain, but there's every possibility he's one of the people allowing the yeerk to slip out of their brain and then quietly walking to go wait in the break room without supervision.

Okay, but surely the taxxons are voluntary. They chose to ally with the yeerks... Only it turns out their options were ally with the yeerks or starve to death (#53), and just because their leaders chose the yeerks doesn't mean individual taxxons were okay with it (Andalite Chronicles).

But then, we all know Taylor is voluntary. Because she gave up her freedom for little old things like... relief from pain. And escape from discrimination. And basic health care that didn't cost her family their life savings (#33). And she could never change her mind, because she got punished by Sub-Visser Fifty-One for misbehaving (#43).

But Mr. Tidwell's definitely voluntary. He chooses to have a yeerk in his brain even after joining the YPM. Only he was so depressed he couldn't take care of himself when he joined (#29), and probably would have literally died without the yeerks.

Hang on, is Tom voluntary? He spontaneously offers to "be quiet" and "never trouble you again" when Temrash 114 starts trying to recruit Jake (#6). We don't know for sure that Tom isn't hanging out in that same break room after the events of #1, in exchange for Jake not being recruited.

So on. We know the Sharing targets people who are unhoused and/or mentally ill, and that the ones with happy, stable home lives (Tom, later Jake) tend to go unconvinced. You have to be vulnerable to end up voluntary, the series shows, so vulnerable that your whole ability to consent is seriously called into question.

[clangenrising]

I want to take a second to talk to those of you who find it funny that Scorch has been calling the Clans a cult. I agree, it is kind of humorous, but I do want to be a wet blanket for a sec and point out that the Warrior Cats Clan structure IS actually very cultish. As far as I can tell, the Clans meet at least three out of four criteria laid out in Steven Hassan's BITE model of Authoritarian Control.

The BITE model lays out 4 kinds of control that Cults and groups like them use to keep their members in check:

Behavior Control Information Control Thought Control Emotional Control

And Warrior Clans exibit most of these traits (keep in mind I haven't read past Omen of the Stars). More below the cut

Behavior Control

Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates/isolates (Clans live in specific areas and only really socialize with their own clan)

Dictate where, how, and with whom the member has sex (half clan and outsider mates are extremely discouraged and even punished)

Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals (Warrior Clans are full of ritual ceremonies that create group cohesion)

Rewards and Punishments used to modify behaviors (breaking the code results in punishments ranging from disliked duties to physical harm and cats can be rewarded with things like the best patrols or getting their warrior names early)

Impose rigid rules or regulations

Separation of Families (if a kittypet joins they are discouraged from ever talking to their family again.)

Information Control

Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs Insider doctrines (Clans discourage their members from listening to kittypets, loners, and rogues)

Extensive use of Cult Generated information and propaganda (I would argue the ubiquity of StarClan in Clan life would count. StarClan's word is seen as pure truth not to be questioned.)

Thought Control

Require members to internalize the group's doctrine as truth including organizing people into us vs them and adopting the group's reality as the only reality.

Change a person's name and identity (this is a big one! If you join a clan you are highly encouraged to take a Clan style name. You become a warrior and that is your new identiy)

Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed (The leader's word is law. StarClan is not to be questioned.)

Labeling alternitive belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful (A warrior rejects the soft life of a kittypet)

Emotional Control

Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness such as Identity guilt, not living up to full potential, etc (Half Clan and kittypet bigotry within clans ticks this box when applicable)

Instill fear of enemies, thinking independently, the outside world, leaving or being shunned by the group, losing one's salvation, etc (Again, more present in Clans that are depicted as 'evil' by the books but things like fear of losing one's salvation is present in kit tales that warn cats about ending up in the dark forest)

Phobia indoctrination: instilling irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader, saying things like there is no happiness outside the group, shunning those who leave so people fear losing their friends and family if they do, never allowing for legitimate reasons to leave aka anyone who does was weak or selfish or brainwashed. (This one is fairly self explanitory)

So yeah. The clans tick all the boxes that cults do.

Now, I want to be clear, im not saying you should start hating the clans or that you're bad for thinking they're cool. Part of that is that Cults inherently try to sound cool to draw in members and part of it is that its okay to enjoy fiction about things that are bad or immoral. The important part is being able to recognize and understand those things.

So my real intent here is to get you to examine the media you engage with more critically and, most importantly, as someone who was born into a cult and managed to escape:

Be careful not to let fun depictions of cults normalize cult behavior. You are not immune to propaganda and I would hate for any of you to get sucked into a group or religion that will control you in these ways. I recommend you take a look at the BITE model in its entirety and really think about how it may apply to groups you are in. Cults are really good at painting themselves as welcoming and fun and they are not. Look out for yourself.

I love you. Your regularly scheduled Warrior Cats content will resume shortly.

[ryasanda]

the rhetoric people spout here re: avoiding radfem posts is legitimately thought control. like, it is normal to read, think about, and engage with a variety of topics, ESPECIALLY ones you are critical of. that’s normal. what is the point of telling people to block hundreds of urls that you (or your thoughtcrime extension shinigami eyes) have determined to be undesirable, if not to control someone’s opinion before it even has a chance to form? are you perhaps scared that if they actually see this content and realize it is nothing like your scare tactic propaganda insists it is, they will come to a nuanced conclusion about it instead of parroting your buzzword activism? why are you so terrified of not having complete control of the narrative?

[balkanradfem]

Thought on Jehovah witnesses

Hey anon, I don't have enough comprehensive knowledge about it to have a relevant opinion, all I do know is that they're a strict patriarchal religion that does a lot of recruiting and their tactics are very cult-like, and they don't let people go free once they're recruited.

If anyone here has personal experience with them or more exhaustive knowledge, please write it down on this post!

[disastergay]

ok but what if I told you this “kill all TERFs” nonsense and “once a TERF, always a TERF” attitude is a tool radfems use to keep their less pliant recruits in line.

like would you leave a cult if you believed everyone outside of it would never forgive you? would you admit to doing something wrong if you had reason to think that the consequences would be lifelong social exile at best?

[a-room-of-my-own]

A bill currently before the California Senate says parents who fail to ‘affirm’ their child’s gender identity should be classified as ‘abusive’.

(...)

Let’s put this into plain English. If your seven-year-old son tells you he’s a girl and you do not instantly treat him as a girl, you could lose him. He could be taken away from you. If your 11-year-old daughter tells you she doesn’t want to go through puberty, and you make her go through it anyway, you could be branded ‘abusive’. Simply for ensuring your child experiences the perfectly natural hormonal transition into adulthood.

(...)

The bill in question is Assembly Bill 957 (AB957). It is ‘aimed at protecting LGBTQ+ youth’, says ABC News, hence why it ‘encourages parents to affirm their child’s gender identity’. ‘Encourage’ is such a slippery euphemism here. When the state threatens to use its extraordinary power to take your children from you, it is doing more than ‘encouraging’ you to affirm your child’s gender identity.

(...)

This bill, if passed, would fundamentally redefine family life in California. It would devastate parents’ rights. Your rights over your children – to love them, to look after them, to socialise them as you see fit – would be utterly contingent on your acceptance of the new state religion of transgenderism. AB957 is best seen as an act of forced religious conversion.

(...)

There are other bills, too. Assembly Bill 665 would allow kids as young as 12 to seek mental-health treatment and other forms of counselling without parental knowledge. Assembly Bill 223 would seal any petition for a gender change filed by a minor – in short, keep a kid’s legal efforts to become a different gender hidden from his parents.

(...)

We need to talk about love. It is not bigotry or phobia or abuse for a parent to refuse to ‘affirm their child’s identity’ – it is an act of parental love. It is a loving parent who protects his or her children from the disorienting and destructive impacts of the gender hysteria.

[unwelcome-ozian]

[sapphsorrows]

the trans community is so annoying they'll be like "terfs hate trans people" but then turn around and encourage trans people to do stuff that will likely get them killed. like encouraging them to have sex with men "stealth", you know, one of the main killers of trans people in the past. and encouraging them to undergo gruesome sex change operations. and encouraging them to cut off anyone in their lives that isn't 100% supportive so that way desisting in the future will be even harder. and encouraging them to take hormones that will likely give them cancer, osteoporosis, heart attacks, dementia, and a myriad of other help complications all for cosmetic effects. but yeah sure terfs are the ones who really hate trans people because we won't enable this kind of behavior.

[hellyeahheroes]

The Alt-Right Playbook: Negging and Love-Bombing by Innuendo Studios

[deservedgrace]

One of the wildest things about end times anxiety/sadness at least in my experience was that you weren't allowed to express it in any significant way. Expressing any type of dissatisfaction with the end times coming soon (because everyone would take any natural disaster or war or bad thing in the world as indication that the end times are upon us) was met with you being shamed for not trusting god, not trusting his timing, for being haughty and prideful thinking you could possibly know the day and hour when not even the angels know, and don't you want jesus to come back? It's a good hopeful thing and your anxiety and fear and sadness and any other negative feelings are signs you don't love and trust the lord enough. It is completely twisted to not only tell children the world is ending soon, but to also force them to look forward to it.

[radiostaticsmile]

Cult tactics tw

Wild to me i am just now realizing my system was Very interested in learning as much as we could about cults while we were with a person who used cult abuse tactics on me (purposefully sleep depriving me, other stuff im ironically to tired rn to think of other things. And normal abuse stuff like gaslighting ans lovebombing obviously) im preeetty sure he was trying to make a cult with the polycule (abusing members into abusing eacn other to do his bidding).

And as soon as i wasnt in that situation i did not wanna hear about it at all. (i say I but it wasnt me Alastor, we split from the abuse so it was somene who doesn't exist anymore)

At the time i was like oh haha :) it just interesting i guess :). When i never was interested before (not that i didnt care about that it happened but i didnt seek to hear about it.) I wonder if part of our brain like Knew hey. This stuff seem similar to cult stuff. And trying desperately to get us to realize Something is Wrong

Also gross to me he also listenes to cult podcast things. I think he legitmately was learning tips on how to abuse on purpose. Bc the way he acted thinking back no way that shits an accdent. You dont consistently sleep deprive me on accident. You don't need basic respect explained to you like youre a toddler as a grown man he fucking knew he just actinf dumb to force me to explain and shirk responsibility of knowingly treatinf me like shit like oh haha didnt know screaming at you was bad ooplsss. Fck yourself. And im p sure he even said shit like he wants to be a cult leader Whilst listening to pdcasts where ppl recount horrible cult abuse and he tried to make the polycule do like. Cult themed aesthetic things like gross gross gross diedie die

Sorry lost the plot there anyways fuck that guy hope he dies

[sukiluvvs]

Amish ppl are a cult btw. I won't elaborate because Google is free and it takes like 2 maybe 3 searches max to know I'm right.

[peakstories]

I was extremely active on tumblr around 2013-2018. I was depressed and was relapsing into my anorexia again. I started posting about how I don’t want to have boobs/hips/etc, how I want to look like a thin boy(I think I might’ve said emaciated once?), how I want to look like a little kid, etc. 20+ yo transwomen then started messaging me, telling me that I’m obviously trans. I started calling myself a “he” and was encouraged to transition behind my family’s back. They continued to tell me how my life will be much better if I just transition, saying that transitioning will solve all of my problems. Someone even suggested fleeing to Canada and claiming refugee status on the basis of LGBT discrimination.

I was like… 15-17 when the trans thing happened?? I then got into an inpatient treatment bc my condition got worse. I got the treatment I needed. At first I didn’t really think much of the TIMs pushing me to transition, but the more I think about it, the angrier I get. In hindsight it would’ve been obvious that I was a girl struggling with puberty and an eating disorder. And instead of trying to help me address those issues and encouraging me to seek professional help, they pushed me to transition socially and medically as a minor. When I started referring to myself as a “she” again I was harassed and gaslit. They told me that I must’ve been brainwashed by my therapist because I “was clearly a transboy”. I peaked and left tumblr for a few years while I sorted myself out.

Oh, also idk if this matters or not but I didn’t hide that I’m not white and that I live in a developing country. The TIMs that contacted me were all white. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if they contacted me because I’m a WOC and bc my country was(and still is) a rather popular “sex tourism”(international prostitution) destination, including child prostitution by foreigners, mainly white men. We’ve busted a few child prostitution rings run by foreigners here, so it’s not like that’s an impossible scenario. I really don’t like thinking about this aspect because it just makes me feel extremely disgusted 😔

I feel groomed tbh. They could’ve told me to seek therapy, but instead they pushed me to transition without seeking any therapy first. 

[orangexmachina]

I've been seeing a lot of misinformation about cults for a while now, and they are my special interest, so it annoys me a lot. Here's a quick rundown of how cults work and misconceptions about them. (Warning for discussions of gaslighting, mind control, religious abuse, child abuse, and sexual control. We're talking about cults here.)

Misconception: All religions are technically cults.

First of all, cults are not strictly religious. A cult can form around anything, whether it be political views, a need for personal connection, sex and marriage, spirituality, pop culture, or religion. Religion is just one aspect of some cults, although a lot of dominant cults such as Jehovahs Witnesses get by by claiming to be religions or using religious messages to make their doctrine easy to process. To "diagnose" a cult most people use the BITE method. This method was created by Steven Hassan, and more information can be found about it online, but here's the basic premise.

B - Behaviour control

This is regulation of a person's life to an intrusive degree: deciding who they may marry, control of clothes, control of diet, financial exploitation, rewarding good behaviour, punishing bad behaviour, threats of harm.

I - Information control

This is controlling the information that goes in and out of a cult member. Minimising access to information from outside the cult, preventing members from talking to those who are outside the cult or former members, preventing members from going to school or higher education, propaganda and blackmail.

T - Thought control

This is getting inside a members head and convincing them of a certain reality till they think like the rest of the cult. Black and white thinking, use of loaded language, encouraging only "good" thoughts, forbidding questions, hypnotising, encouraging drug abuse.

E - Emotional control

Promoting the idea that certain emotions are evil and should be reacted to with guilt and horror. This can also be blackmail, threatening your friends and family, instilling unworthiness, ritualistic confession of sins, phobia creating, telling members that members that leave the cult are weak willed or brainwashed.

Some would argue that many religions have aspects of the BITE model. Catholics, for example, utilise ritualistic confession and feelings of guilt or unworthiness. Islam requests men and women to dress in a certain way. Many different religions have dietary rules and regulations.

However, simply possessing one or two aspects of the BITE model is not enough to define a cult. Many believe that because they are devout atheists or renounce gods that they are immune to cults. To them, I respond with that one Garfield meme.

You are not immune to propaganda.

Cults prey on our instinctual need for a strong community as well as our tendency towards becoming xenophobic (not to other countries but to people outside our communities).

In this way, they target lonely people, people who have no family, people with mental health issues. Basically, anyone who is prone to seeking some kind of insider knowledge. People like to feel as if they are part of something that nobody else knows about. We like to feel like individuals on the fringes of society while maintaining an insider status because of our desire to be loved.

There is no shame in being drawn into a cult.

Cults operate like mass abusive relationships, and they don't drop you in in the deep end like people imagine. Instead, they gradually entice you in, until they have information on you that you do not want shared or they have the ability to threaten loved ones. Then there is little way out.

People who join cults are not naive idiots who like chanting. As much as pop culture and cynics try and convince you that they are. Thinking that way is a surefire way to not notice when you fall into a cult yourself. Nobody is immune to cult tactics, and believing that you are too clever to fall for them is dangerous. When joining any spiritual, religious group or a group that deals with mental health, I really recommend looking for the signs of the BITE methods of control as well as googling the group to see if anyone has had any experiences with them. There are so many excellent resources online.

Thanks if you read this far. It's a long post, but I felt it was important to me to make it. I don't want people to live in constant fear that they may get indoctrinated into a cult but I also don't want people to not be aware when they are falling into one because it doesn't look like the movies. Keep being individuals and stay safe.

[asherisawkward]

A Ramble on Grimwald, My Golden Guard OC

To start, the name “Grimwald” means “prevail,” which is one of the ways that inspired my design of his personality despite intending it initially as a morbid joke.

I made Grimwald based on the idea that he develops Philip’s obsessive behavior growing up, but aimed at Philip himself. I personally headcanon that Philip hand-makes each of the Grimwalkers a special item (like Sprig for Hunter) to foster attachment and dependency to him. So, when he’s about six, Grimwald gets a quilt that he keeps literally until the day he dies. He finds out about the Grimwalkers when he’s sixteen.

What happens is that Philip turns into his beast form and flees up to the Titan’s skull. Grimwald follows him and eventually catches up on the bridge area. Philip grabs him and YEETS him off the side in a moment of anger, but Grimwald survives the fall using magic (even if he does get beat up). He lands in the Golden Guard pit and sees all the bodies/masks. Obviously traumatized, he cries for a while but makes no move to leave. Philip eventually comes down after regaining control to see if Grimwald died.

However, Grimwald immediately runs up to him, throws his arms around him, and asks to go home (back to the palace). Philip is surprised but intrigued, so he allows this to happen. Grimwald doesn’t ask about it and continues about his duties until Philip kind of goes, “Aren’t you curious about what that was?” And Grimwald says he was waiting for Philip to be ready to talk about it because he doesn’t want to push him.

So Philip decided to do what he does best and manipulate a child. He tells Grimwald that he is a human and Caleb is his brother reincarnated of brought back from the dead because he failed to stay with him (Philip) like he (Caleb) promised in his first life.

Philip gives a heavily altered course of events that paint him as the good guy, witches as the bad guys, and Caleb as bewitched and an abandoner. This makes Grimwald feel immense responsibility for Caleb’s actions, and he makes an Everlasting Oath to never abandon Philip as long as he lives.

After that, Grimwald refuses to leave Philip’s side unless ordered to and always returns as quickly as possible to him, placing emphasis on efficacy and ruthlessness to please Philip. He additionally becomes convinced that the only reason he connects with witches is because he is “tainted” by the Grimwalker form and basically gaslights himself into dehumanizing witches and that his empathy for them is entirely because he is a flawed reincarnation.

During time when there are not other witches around, Grimwald tries to recreate himself as “Caleb” by acting brotherly towards Philip and attempting to simulate that relationship again. It works fairly well, and Philip sometimes slips up and calls him “Caleb” (which Philip is really proud of because he sees it as proof he’s succeeding).

However, Grimwald begins to detest his appearance because it does not look the way that it used to “when he was human.” This leads to an incident where he tries to cut his ears to look human but is stopped by Philip. During the time after the revelations, Grimwald only communicates with people other than Philip out of necessity.

The whole thing lasts four years, with Philip slowly realizing that Grimwald is becoming self-destructive due to the guilt he feels. He will risk punishment and danger rather than failure, but it has lead to medical expenses for healing and hospital trips due to lack of self care.

Grimwald’s last mission is one where he is sent after a shapeshifter type of creature similar to Grom. It turns into Philip upon seeing Grimwald, and the latter feels to terrified and worried to harm it simply because it has the appearance of his creator. Grimwald dies in the ensuing fight, and the creature runs off. He is twenty years old when that happens.

He doesn’t initially realize he is dead when he wakes up as a ghost. He returns to the palace, ready to accept his punishment. But Philip doesn’t acknowledge him. Grimwald thinks he is getting ignored for failing, so he just sits in the throne room until a scout comes in to bring Philip news of his death. Afterwards, Grimwald spends much of his time watching Philip and his successor (Darius’s mentor) before beginning to leave the castle and wander around the Isles once Hunter is created.